When it comes to Taylor Swift and Kanye West's long-lasting beef, to say there's a lot of history there would be an understatement.
During the Lover singer's recent interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor opened up about her decade-long feud with Mr. West, referencing everything from "that thing that happened" at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards to everything that led up to that now-infamous "illegally recorded" phone call. Tay additionally provided receipts to show how her feud with Ye mirrors his beef with Drake.
"The world didnât understand the context and the events that led up to it," the 29-year-old singer began, referencing that leaked phone call. "Because nothing ever just happens like that without some lead-up. Some events took place to cause me to be pissed off when [Kanye West] called me a b*tch. That was not just a singular event."
As fans know, Kim Kardashian released a number of recordings of a phone conversation between Taylor and Ye in an attempt to prove that Taylor agreed to the line ââŠme and Taylor might still have sex.â However, you donât hear Taylor being told about the next lyric, the one she says bothered her â "I made that b*tch famous," which is just one of the many things that led to the downfall of their friendship, as Taylor explained it:
Basically, I got really sick of the dynamic between he and I. And that wasnât just based on what happened on that phone call and with that song â it was kind of a chain reaction of things. I started to feel like we reconnected, which felt great for me â because all I ever wanted my whole career after that thing happened in 2009 was for him to respect me. When someone doesnât respect you so loudly and says you literally donât deserve to be here â I just so badly wanted that respect from him, and I hate that about myself, that I was like, âThis guy whoâs antagonizing me, I just want his approval.â But thatâs where I was. And so weâd go to dinner and stuff. And I was so happy, because he would say really nice things about my music. It just felt like I was healing some childhood rejection or something from when I was 19. But the 2015 VMAs come around. Heâs getting the Vanguard Award. He called me up beforehand â I didnât illegally record it, so I canât play it for you. But he called me up, maybe a week or so before the event, and we had maybe over an hour-long conversation, and heâs like, âI really, really would like for you to present this Vanguard Award to me, this would mean so much to me,â and went into all the reasons why it means so much, because he can be so sweet. He can be the sweetest. And I was so stoked that he asked me that. And so I wrote this speech up, and then we get to the VMAs and I make this speech and he screams, âMTV got Taylor Swift up here to present me this award for ratings!â [His exact words: âYou know how many times they announced Taylor was going to give me the award âcause it got them more ratings?â] And Iâm standing in the audience with my arm around his wife, and this chill ran through my body. I realized he is so two-faced. That he wants to be nice to me behind the scenes, but then he wants to look cool, get up in front of everyone and talk sh*t. "And I was so upset. He wanted me to come talk to him after the event in his dressing room. I wouldnât go. So then he sent this big, big thing of flowers the next day to apologize. And I was like, âYou know what? I really donât want us to be on bad terms again. So whatever, Iâm just going to move past this.â So when he gets on the phone with me, and I was so touched that he would be respectful and, like, tell me about this one line in the song. [The line being â... me and Taylor might still have sexâ.] And I was like, âOK, good. Weâre back on good terms.â And then when I heard the song, I was like, âIâm done with this. If you want to be on bad terms, letâs be on bad terms, but just be real about it.â
Taylor then connected what happened to her and Kanye to what happened between Drake and Kanye, referencing his alleged involvement in the Pusha T/Drake feud. (While he's denied it, Kanye has long been accused of telling Pusha about Kanye's secret son)
"And then he literally did the same thing to Drake. He gravely affected the trajectory of Drakeâs family and their lives. Itâs the same thing. Getting close to you, earning your trust, detonating you," Taylor explained. "I really donât want to talk about it anymore because I get worked up, and I donât want to just talk about negative sh*t all day, but itâs the same thing. Go watch Drake talk about what happened."
Read Taylor's full interview with Rolling Stone here.
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